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Training—Accounting Tools and Practices

Introduction

This portfolio work project will help you to not only better understand commonly used accounting tools, but it will also give you the opportunity to use your skills and experience by preparing training materials to train someone else.

Scenario

You work for an organization that is seeking growth and recently has hired new district managers to assist in this growth. In talking to other regional managers, you have heard that some district managers do not have a thorough understanding of commonly used accounting tools including an income statement and balance sheet. You have a new district manager hire, John, and see the need to do some training with him so he has a solid understanding of income statements, balance sheets, and the elements that go into them including advertising costs, Web development costs, and store opening costs.

In preparing to train your new hire, you have determined that the use of examples (a picture is worth a thousand words) can be a great approach to use. So, you have decided to gather some examples from the company’s summary of significant accounting policies from its latest financial statements.

You may apply this scenario to either Option 1 or Option 2, described in Requirements below.

Your Role

You are a regional manager for Urban Outfitters or your selected organization and oversee a number of districts. You have recently brought a new district manager on board and want to ensure he has the knowledge and tools needed to effectively do his job.

Requirements

Option 1:

The organization you work for is Urban Outfitters. Use the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission site linked in Resources to find the Urban Outfitter’s 2016–2017 financial statement’s summary of significant accounting policies. Look at the data for 2015, 2016, and 2017 for the following examples of essential elements you need to cover with John and ensure his understanding.

• Advertising. Examine the criteria used to expense and capitalize advertising costs and where these costs appear in the financial statement.
• Store opening costs. Examine how store opening and organization costs were handled and where these costs appear in the financial statement.
• Website development costs. Examine the approaches taken during the application and infrastructure development stage and the planning and operating stage.

Option 2:

Use a firm or scenario of your choosing.

Before choosing a company, read the assignment thoroughly to ensure:

• The company fits the assignment requirements.
• You have access to the financial statement’s summary of significant accounting policies and the Note disclosures from which you are drawing your materials. Include this information in the appendix for instructor reference.
• You can distribute the data without disclosing confidential company information.

Contact your instructor with questions.

Training Materials

As you prepare your training materials for John, use the examples you collected from the company’s Notes to financial documents to illustrate how you address the following items:

• Explain how one or more of the following costs are captured:
  • Advertising.
  • Store opening. If store opening costs were capitalized, over what time period would you amortize them? Explain why you selected this time period.
  • Website development.
• Analyze the importance of Notes to financial statements in interpreting financial statements.
• Explain how the accounting method the company uses affects the financial statements.
• Explain how the financial statements would differ if another method were used to capture the costs.
• If you have a preference for capitalizing or expensing these costs, explain why it is your preference.

Deliverable Format

Leadership has asked that you develop either a training deck or a training manual that you will use with John and that can be deployed with other new hires as well. Regardless of the format selected, the information should address the points identified above and with detailed explanations within the notes areas of slides or within the training manual text. It will also be helpful to include information in regard to why each item is important to the organization as well as the success of the new district manager.

To use your time and John’s time wisely, be conscientious about providing thorough yet concise information. These materials are expected to be used by others for future training needs, so make sure they are well organized and clear.

Training materials requirements:

• 12–15 slides for a training deck. Include additional details as slide notes.
• 3–4 pages for a training manual.

Related company standards for either format:

• In addition to the training deck or manual materials, include:
• • Title (slide or page).
  • References (slide or page).
  • Appendix with supporting materials. If you are using a firm or scenario of your choosing, ensure your instructor has sufficient information to understand how you reached your recommendation.
  • At least two APA-formatted references.

Evaluation

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies through corresponding scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Explain how accounting concepts and practices impact financial reporting.
  • Explain how the accounting method the company used affects the financial statements.
  • Compare how two accounting methods differ in their effects on the financial statements.
• Competency 4: Communicate financial information with multiple stakeholders.
  • Communicate accounting information clearly.

Your course instructor will use the scoring guide to review your deliverable as if they were your immediate supervisor. Review the scoring guide prior to developing and submitting your assignment.

Advanced Topics in Financial Statements

Between 1955 and 1972, consumer prices increased by less than one percent a year. The first-in, first-out (FIFO) inventory pricing method was, by a wide margin, the most popular choice. This method assigns the cost of the earliest purchased items as the cost of goods sold and assigns the cost of the most recent purchases to the value of the unsold goods, shown as inventory on the balance sheet. This method of determining cost flow matches the actual physical flow of inventory (selling the oldest items first, keeping the physical goods fresh).

From about 1972 to about 1985, inflation occurred in the United States. In some years, prices increased by more than twelve percent. In some industries, the price increase was much higher than twelve percent. A method of computing the cost flow of inventory called the last-in, first-out (LIFO) method quickly became the most popular choice, again by a wide margin. This method assigns the cost of the earliest (cheapest) purchases to inventory and assigns the cost of the latest (most expensive) purchases as the cost of goods sold. Note that the use of LIFO for cost-flow determination has no effect on the physical flow of inventory, which will continue to sell the oldest items first and maintain a fresh inventory.

For this week’s discussion, prepare 4–5 paragraphs discussing inventory valuations. Consider the following to include in your discussion:

• If prices were steady—no inflation and no deflation—would net income be different depending on whether a company used FIFO or LIFO? Explain.
• If you were the owner of a company, and thus responsible for the payment of income taxes, which inventory method would you prefer if you were operating in an inflationary environment? Explain, using an example.
• If you were the manager of a division of a company, operating in an inflationary environment, and your bonus depended on net income, which inventory method would you prefer? In answering this question, assume that you are concerned only about receiving a high bonus; you are not concerned about the well-being of the company. Explain, using an example.
• The use of LIFO has been described as sacrificing the balance sheet in order to achieve an income statement in which gross profit is determined by matching the current costs of replacing inventory against the current selling prices of the inventory. What is meant by that description?
• How can you find out what inventory cost flow method is being used by a company?